We need more education, less schooling.

India boasts of a Human Resources dividend because of a young working population in the present times and in the foreseeable future. Actually going by present trends India is heading towards a Human Resources disaster. Here is why.

Surveys have always confirmed what I have experienced in recruiting employees. Our schooling system is out of sync with the needs of our society and our humanity.

As per ASER (Annual Survey of Education Report) India 25 per cent of Class 8 students can't read Class II text.
Another statistic, 56% of Class 8 students cannot do simple basic math


As regards college graduates one survey revealed that [47 Percent graduates in India are unemployable for any job.
Another report reveals that, over 80% Indian engineers are unemployable, lack new-age technology skills

The causes are numerous and blunders of historical past cannot be undone. However with understanding and commitment, transferred into action the future can be created.
The sure sign of an impending disaster is that in spite of knowing that the situation is very bad, we are unable to or unwilling to act.

Though Schooling and Education are terms often used interchangeably, there is a big difference.

Schooling is the pushing out of facts, figures, data, instructions, and the regimentation of the student, by instructors but called teachers so as to get students to think and behave in a reliably predictable manner. 

Society has evolved and changed dramatically but the approach to learning remains mostly unchanged. Mandated by government bureaucrats and effected by various boards, schooling as is currently effected is damaging if not disastrous to society.

Schools nowadays may have modern infrastructure but their soul has mostly been lost. Schools currently do only two things, they babysit students and deliver curriculum.

At the end of their schooling, an intelligent, innocent and pure child will in all probability be converted into an indoctrinated arrogant creature lacking values. Will possess at best a lot of facts and figures and unlikely to live a wholesome, happy and successful life.

Most schools now focus entirely on ensuring that students pursue and achieve high marks in various mandated board examinations, so that the student can join the next level of rote learning and progress to being further dumbed down in colleges.

Only a small percentage of students with the guidance and support of their parents and some committed teachers be able to escape the trap. They will join select institutions and rise to become something. 

Anyone or anything that provides a lesson is a teacher.  In the schooling system of today, the teacher only transfers the information from a syllabus to the student so that the student can pass an examination based on his or her memory.

Education is the creation of an environment which stimulates the student to thirst for information and knowledge, which they will find exciting, relevant and useful. Education is a pulling of knowledge from formal and informal sources.  Education is also experiential learning while schooling provides only rote learning. 

Schooling significantly disregards the numerous natural intelligences, and natural inclination of individual students, so as to produce identical products which will be considered normal. While education excites human intelligence and therefore inspires, schooling tends to deaden and degrade human intelligence. 

Schooling certainly enhances intellect and memory, but it is not the same as enhancing intelligence and creativity which comes only from education. Schooling is a top down approach whereas education is multidirectional. Education can come from ones research and experiences, from public sources, internet, libraries, peers, seniors, juniors, colleagues, associates and even strangers. One of the most impactful source of education are parents and family. 

Demotivated by school managements running as businesses or as ineffective and inefficient government  bureaucracies, overworked and distracted by excessive regulations, and curriculum, intimidated by aggressive parents, teachers in schools have little or no room to really facilitate student learning. 

As a result the student receives information in such an insipid manner, and without understanding its relevance and application, that, whatever is taught is crammed and quickly forgotten after the examinations. Most schools at best convert ignorance into arrogance by providing vast amount of information.

Many of my friends are men of extraordinary character and capabilities. We owe much of our achievements and happiness to the great education we received from our parents, companions and teachers. Pursuing education and not mere schooling made all the difference.

The only way to build a better society and a better humanity is to provide more education understanding and awakening and less of schooling and testing.

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Interesting References:

Annual Status of Education Report - ACER 2018

India's demographic dividend - BBC news

Savouring Life

We all need challenges to enjoy life. 

Challenge gets our adrenaline flowing enabling us to either fight or take flight, and this in turn creates stress. Some level of stress is in fact healthy and even essential for  us to live exciting and interesting lives. However stress can often become addictive. As with all addictions we need greater and greater doses of excitement to get the same high.

One of the greatest stress creators is modern man's, need for speed. Our lives are running faster and faster, yet rarely do we arrive anywhere meaningful. 

Time is money we are told. Money for whom and what will you do with that money if you have lost your health, your sanity, and your self? We often have no time to enjoy life, nature, our families, our friends and precious moments we live. If we ever do realise our folly, it is often too late in life to do anything about it.

Life is not only to be lived, it has to be savoured. Unfortunately we have come to believe that only through money and power, can we enjoy life and be happy. That too if we have lots of it.

Many things in life can be enjoyed which money cannot afford to buy,  The love and company of family, friendship, sound sleep, good health, mother's cooking, wisdom, etc. etc. 

The sounds and smell of nature, the sun, rain, the breeze, the song of birds and the mischief of youth, the joy of play, music and dance, all these and many other things we increasingly miss in our lives.

When we travel fast we hardly ever notice the scenery and therefore can never admire it or the company of our co-travellers in life. When we zip through life we journey from cradle to the funeral pyre or grave, we hardly get to live. Mere existence is not living, its just existing.

Many years ago I went through a catastrophic personal and business setback. I struggled and I struggled and I struggled, until there was nothing more I could do. 

When all worldly doors close we seek a higher self within our own being. Through the doorway of our soul we seek to find answers and solutions. Eventually, exhausted, I surrendered to God's will. I stopped struggling and that led an awakening.

Now I had time to look within. I now had time to do all the things I should have done all my life, and somehow forgotten to do because I was 'too busy'.

I found I had time to reflect, meditate, pray, go for walks, spend time with my loved ones. I learnt to chew rather than swallow my food. Help out at home, guide and play with the children, read, listen to music and hymns, share stories and fantasies and a hundred other things. I had done many of these things before but grudgingly or almost robotically. Now I savoured them.

I do not regret the years I spent working very hard, for I learnt many things,  achieved some spectacular results, numerous setbacks and  discovered my potential, my flaws and essentially myself, but it was always to be greater, reach higher, move faster. It was always more and more of everything.

I met many fascinating people and worked with amazing colleagues who taught me much. Many liked me and some even loved me but I was too busy and oblivious of their affection.

I still work hard. I teach, consult, and mentor individuals and organisations,  and many other things, but all with greater meaning. No issue is too minor, nor is any relationship too demanding.  A joy fills my being, for I no longer live life but savour it.

____________________

"The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.” 

 - W.M. Lewis

India at 67

The further we travel the more we long to return to our origin. We have to step out to look in. After many years of travelling, visiting numerous countries and people, I want to return home. Not the physical home, but where my heart lies, to discover my country and people, and in doing so learn who am I.

A land and its people are best understood by its history, culture and art. The journey is meaningful only when made using the native language. Therein lies the problem for most of us Indians including me, even if they be moneyed, are in a position of power or influence. 

Our history has been rewritten and handed down to us by the former colonialists and perpetuated by an education system that is designed to glorify their achievements while heaping ridicule and shame on Indians. Yet we accept it all unquestioningly.

Our identity and culture has been grievously harmed by the systematic destruction of many of the components of our society, that made India great for millennia and attracted invaders in the first place. Our art and heritage has been stolen by the invaders and now adorn living rooms and museums across the world as trophies. 

Worst of all is our own mother tongue and our languages which are so rich are now shunned by us. We are incapable of or feel embarrassed to speak in Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil etc, lest we be considered country bumpkins. The mistaken notion that Indian languages and literature are inferior to the English language and European literature is implanted and stubbornly ingrained in our minds. Further this opinion is constantly reinforced by leaders, teachers and the media of our own country.

We are now effectively disconnected from ourselves and somewhat confused because we do not know who we are. We want to be like the Europeans who ruled us or the Americans to copy them blindly to adopt a culture, thinking working and lifestyles, which are often inappropriate for us.

I ask you, are we really free? I believe we are not free, unless we discover ourselves as real Indians

We are a continent sized nation, that has been adrift for a very long time. Populated by an amazing range of people with rich culture, who are not only intelligent but possess great talent.  A great future awaits us as Individuals and as a nation, we just need to find ourselves. In a sense to be reborn. To become truly rich in every sense if we choose to.

To rekindle our lost spirit, be materially and spiritually rich once again, it is essential that we respect, appreciate and acquire all that is beautiful, great and useful from other cultures and lands.

English no doubt has now become the internationally accepted language for science and commerce. No doubt, we must not only learn English and be proficient in its use, but must we forsake our own languages and hence lose the vital link with our culture and heritage?

Let us not hold grudges or condemn anyone. Past history cannot be changed, however a magnificent history can be created in the future, by being the best that we Indians have the potential to be.

I have already begun my journey and made some progress. I hope you have discovered or have begun discovering the authentic person and Indian in you. My friend, it is then that you can claim to be independent. Until then please forgive me for not congratulating you this Independence day.

It is a always better to be an imperfect version of yourself then to try and be a perfect copy of someone else.